As we dive into the critical intersection of mental health care and LGBTQ+ advocacy, I’m thrilled to speak with a trailblazer in this space. With over a decade of experience in LGBTQ+ advocacy and a passion for addressing systemic gaps in mental health care, our guest today is the co-founder and CEO of Allswell, a startup dedicated to providing affirming, evidence-based therapy for LGBTQ+ adults. Having raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding, Allswell is already making waves by offering virtual therapy rooted in approaches tailored to the unique needs of this community. In this conversation, we’ll explore the motivations behind founding Allswell, the specific challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in accessing care, the innovative therapeutic models being used, and the vision for expanding access and impact in the coming years.
Can you share the story behind starting Allswell? What personal or professional experiences drove you to focus on mental health care for the LGBTQ+ community?
Absolutely. My journey with Allswell really stems from over a decade of advocacy work with the LGBTQ+ community, including volunteering with organizations supporting queer youth. I’ve seen firsthand how isolating it can be to seek mental health care that truly understands your identity. Personally, navigating care on Medicaid myself, I often felt a profound lack of community and options that were designed with my needs in mind, even in progressive areas like Seattle. Professionally, I noticed that many mental health programs for adults just weren’t considering the unique challenges LGBTQ+ individuals face. That gap—coupled with a drive to create systemic change—led me to co-found Allswell in 2024 to build a space where affirming, evidence-based care is the norm.
What specific shortcomings in mental health care for LGBTQ+ adults stood out to you as you developed this platform?
One of the biggest issues is the lack of tailored options. Many programs target adults broadly but don’t account for the specific stressors and traumas that LGBTQ+ individuals often face, like discrimination or family rejection. There’s also a real scarcity of providers who are trained to work affirmatively with this community. During my research at Stanford Business School, I conducted hundreds of interviews with healthcare consumers and heard heartbreaking stories of providers lacking empathy or even displaying outright bias. Additionally, access is a huge barrier—especially for those on Medicaid or in areas without local affirming options. These gaps in understanding, training, and access were what we set out to address with Allswell.
How did your experience at Stanford Business School influence your vision for Allswell? Can you recall a pivotal moment or lesson from that time?
Stanford was transformative for me. I took a course on entrepreneurship for societal health that really opened my eyes to how the private sector can tackle social challenges. It made me realize I could build something like Allswell to address a pressing need. A key moment was during those hundreds of consumer interviews I mentioned—listening to LGBTQ+ individuals share their struggles with mental health care providers who didn’t get it. That fueled my determination to create a platform rooted in affirmation and evidence. Stanford also connected me with the Impact Founder fellowship, which provided funding and advising support. That validation and structure helped refine my vision to focus on both clinical impact and scalability.
From those interviews, what were some of the most eye-opening challenges LGBTQ+ individuals face when trying to access mental health care?
Honestly, the stories were often heartbreaking. Many people shared experiences of feeling dismissed or misunderstood by providers who lacked cultural competence. Some encountered outright bigotry—therapists who questioned their identity rather than supported it. Others talked about practical barriers, like not having local options that felt safe or being unable to afford care. A recurring theme was isolation—feeling like there was no one who truly understood their lived experience. For folks on Medicaid, the options were even slimmer. These challenges weren’t just frustrating; they were actively harmful, often deterring people from seeking help at all. That’s why Allswell prioritizes virtual care and in-network options with Medicaid and major insurers.
Allswell started in Maryland—why there, and what’s your strategy for expanding to the broader DMV region by early 2026?
We chose Maryland as our starting point because it offered a mix of progressive attitudes toward LGBTQ+ rights and a clear need for specialized mental health services. It also allowed us to build strong relationships with local Medicaid programs and insurers like CareFirst and UnitedHealthcare. Starting in a single state let us refine our model—ensuring our virtual therapy and therapist training were effective before scaling. Our plan for the DMV region by early 2026 involves leveraging the $1.3 million in pre-seed funding to grow our therapist network and deepen our digital tools. We’re also working on partnerships and state-specific licensing to ensure seamless access across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, meeting the community wherever they are.
Can you break down what affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy is and why it’s so crucial for the LGBTQ+ community?
Sure. Affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is an approach that adapts traditional CBT to explicitly validate and center the identities and experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals. Unlike standard CBT, which might focus heavily on internal thought patterns without much regard for external stressors, affirmative CBT acknowledges the real impact of societal factors like stigma and discrimination. It’s crucial because LGBTQ+ folks often deal with minority stress—chronic stress from being marginalized—that can’t just be “thought away.” This therapy helps clients process those external pressures while building coping skills, ensuring they feel seen and supported rather than blamed for systemic issues they can’t control.
Allswell also offers trauma-focused therapies like cognitive processing therapy and EMDR. How do these help address the high rates of PTSD in the LGBTQ+ community?
Trauma is unfortunately very common in the LGBTQ+ community, with PTSD rates as high as 48% compared to about 8% in the general population. Cognitive processing therapy and EMDR—eye movement desensitization and reprocessing—are evidence-based approaches specifically designed to help process and heal from traumatic experiences. Cognitive processing therapy helps individuals challenge and reframe distressing thoughts related to trauma, while EMDR uses guided eye movements to reduce the emotional intensity of traumatic memories. These therapies are vital because so many LGBTQ+ individuals experience trauma from discrimination, rejection, or violence. By offering these in one-on-one settings, we’re helping clients reclaim their sense of safety and control, which is often shattered by those experiences.
Why did you make group therapy a core part of Allswell’s services, and how does it combat loneliness in the LGBTQ+ community?
Group therapy was a no-brainer for us because loneliness is such a pervasive issue in the LGBTQ+ community—folks are far more likely to report feeling isolated than the general population. Bringing people together in a group setting with shared identities and experiences creates a powerful sense of belonging. It’s not just about talking through challenges; it’s about realizing you’re not alone in them. For many, it’s the first time they’ve been in a space where they can be fully themselves without judgment. That connection can be incredibly healing, reducing feelings of isolation and building a support network that extends beyond the session.
Looking ahead, you’ve mentioned plans for group trauma therapy. What hurdles do you anticipate in rolling that out, and how do you plan to overcome them?
Group trauma therapy is a goal we’re excited about because it can amplify healing through shared experience, but it comes with unique challenges. One big hurdle is ensuring a safe environment—trauma is deeply personal, and group settings can sometimes trigger participants if not managed carefully. We’ll need highly trained facilitators who can handle those dynamics. Another challenge is matching participants appropriately so the group feels cohesive and supportive. To address these, we’re investing in specialized training for our therapists and developing strict protocols for group composition and facilitation. We’re also starting small with pilot programs to test and refine our approach before a full rollout.
How do digital tools like journaling and worksheets play a role in Allswell’s care model, and what enhancements do you envision with AI-enabled apps?
Digital tools are a key part of keeping patients engaged between sessions. Journaling, especially for trauma, helps clients process emotions and track patterns over time, while worksheets reinforce skills learned in therapy, like reframing negative thoughts. These tools bridge the gap, making therapy a continuous process rather than just a weekly hour. With the recent funding, we’re excited to build AI-enabled apps that can personalize these experiences—think tailored prompts for journaling based on a client’s progress or reminders for skill-building exercises. AI can also help us analyze data to spot trends in mood or stress, allowing therapists to adjust care proactively. It’s about making support more accessible and responsive.
You’ve highlighted minority stress as a key factor for LGBTQ+ mental health. Can you explain what that is and how Allswell’s therapy models tackle it?
Minority stress refers to the chronic, additional stress that marginalized groups like LGBTQ+ individuals experience due to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination. It’s not just about one-off incidents—it’s the cumulative toll of living in a society that often invalidates or harms your identity, from microaggressions to outright hostility. This can manifest as anxiety, depression, or trauma. At Allswell, our therapy models, especially affirmative CBT, are designed to address this head-on. We help clients name and process the impact of minority stress, while also building resilience against it. Unlike traditional models that might ignore external factors, we validate that these stressors are real and work on strategies to navigate them without internalizing blame.
What sets Allswell’s commitment to evidence-based care apart from other mental health programs, particularly for marginalized communities?
Our dedication to evidence-based care means every approach we use—whether it’s affirmative CBT, EMDR, or cognitive processing therapy—is backed by rigorous research, like randomized controlled trials. For marginalized communities like LGBTQ+ adults, this is critical because many programs out there prioritize revenue or patient satisfaction over proven outcomes. Some therapists might indulge unhelpful narratives for a fee, but we focus on what works, even if it’s challenging. We also adapt these evidence-based models to account for unique factors like minority stress, which standard programs often overlook. Plus, we practice measurement-based care, tracking metrics like depression and loneliness to ensure real progress—83% of our patients see reduced depression symptoms in just four to eight weeks.
How do you make sure Allswell’s therapists are equipped to support diverse LGBTQ+ populations, and what kind of training do they receive?
We’re very intentional about this. We screen therapists for prior experience working with diverse LGBTQ+ populations to ensure a baseline of understanding. Beyond that, they complete additional training modules designed by a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ healthcare resources. Some also train directly with our clinical advisor, who specializes in affirmative practices. This training covers cultural competence, understanding barriers like discrimination, and adapting therapy to affirm identities rather than challenge them. It’s about ensuring our therapists don’t just know the techniques but deeply grasp the lived realities of our clients, so every session feels safe and relevant.
What’s your forecast for the future of mental health care access for the LGBTQ+ community, and how do you see Allswell contributing to that vision?
I think the future of mental health care for the LGBTQ+ community will hinge on greater awareness of our specific needs and more tailored, accessible solutions—especially virtual ones, given how much our community gravitates toward online spaces for support. However, I’m concerned about funding cuts, both federally and for research specific to our community, which could widen existing gaps. I see Allswell as a leader in pushing for change—expanding affirming, evidence-based care to more states, growing our digital tools to meet people where they are, and advocating for the scale of this need, which is often underestimated. With over 30 million American adults identifying as LGBTQ+, this isn’t a niche issue. We’re committed to building a model that proves specialized care can be both impactful and sustainable, inspiring broader systemic shifts.
